Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
India has signed a 500-million-dollar loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently.
This is the first tranche of one-billion-dollar credit facility offered by ADB to build high-speed Delhi-Meerut regional rapid transit system (RRTS) corridor. The RRTS is 82 km long and is aimed to improve the connectivity and mobility in the national capital region.

Notes:
Funds above Rs.7,00,000 sent abroad under RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme would be subjected to 5% Tax Collection at Source.
This is under the Finance Act 2020 and would come in to force from 1st October 2020. On payments above Rs.700,000, the TCS will apply on the amount above this threshold. The TCS is not applicable for buying a tour package.

Notes:
The Government of Gujarat has announced the state’s first Heritage Tourism Policy. The policy permits use of historic buildings (pre-1950 historical buildings) such as heritage palaces and forts, as heritage hotels, heritage museums, heritage banquet halls and heritage restaurants etc.
Under the policy, the State Government will offer an aid of Rs. 5 – 10 crore for renovation of these heritage structures.

Notes:
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has become the first Indian company to surpass USD 200 billion in market capitalisation. The RIL had market capitalisation of Rs.15.3 trillion (USD 208 billion).
RIL is followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with market capitalization of Rs 8.75 trillion (USD 119 billion). RIL is the 40th most valuable firm globally.

Notes:
Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed to revamp its IT infrastructure network and communication systems.
Also, SEBI has proposed to have a centralised control over its network. In this regard, SEBI has shortlisted 8 companies which includes Bharti Airtel, Wipro, TCS, HP, IBM, NTT India, Orange Business Services India Technology and Sify Technologies.

Notes:
India has been ranked at 105th position in the Economic Freedom Index 2020.
‘The Economic Freedom of the World: 2020 Annual Report’ has been released by Fraser Institute of Canada in collaboration with New Delhi based think tank “Centre For Civil Society”. As per the report, Hong Kong and Singapore have topped the index.

Notes:
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has recently dedicated three petroleum projects at Bihar to the nation.
Indian Oil’s 193 km long Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline, Indian Oil’s Cooking gas bottling plant at Banka and HPCL’s LPG bottling plant at Harsidh are the three projects at Bihar which have been inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

Notes:
The Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented India and co-chaired the ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting.
The meeting was held in a virtual mode. The meeting was participated by Foreign Ministers of the 10 ASEAN Member countries and India. During the meeting, a new ASEAN-India Plan of Action (2021-2025) was adopted.

Notes:
Foundation stone was laid for construction of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Sabroom of Tripura. It is the first SEZ of the state.
The SEZ is being built at a cost of Rs 635 crore and would focus on rubber, bamboo, textile and food processing. Sabroom is located at a distance of 130 km from Agartala, the capital of Tripura.

Notes:
According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia’s economy will contract for the first time since the early 1960s.
The bank had earlier projected that the GDP would grow by 0.1 per cent. Now, it is estimated that Asia’s GDP would decline by 0.7 per cent in 2020 and would increase to 7.7 per cent in 2021. It also highlighted that the GD in India would contract by 9% this year.